Why I Oughta...

At some point earlier this year, I picked up this copy of #188 Walt Disney's Comics and stories book at an antique mall up in Wisconsin.  This one is from May of 1956 and is in good condition, but we're not retiring on this thing!  I paid just $1 for the book and it will go into the archives here at the homestead.   This is the third 'vintage Disney' item that we own with a few others that I've posted about here on the blog that 'got away'. The first are these Matchbox cars from the 70's/80's that were mine when I was a kid . Then there was this vintage Pooh Bear Golden book from a garage sale .   A prized possession:  this election-themed Pooh Bear glass from Sears .   Then this Summer, I shared this Mickey the Mouse back scratcher .   And finally, I found this vintage Disneyland pennant at an estate sale .  

One week in with our 2018 edition of the amaryllis bulb and I'm happy to report that there's a little bit of action going on here.  Here's the post showing the bulb both before it went into the pot and right after .  If you look closely at this photo above, you'll notice two things:  First, the tiniest little green shoot emerging from the middle (top part of the bulb in this photo) and a good-sized 'gap' that has been created near the bottom of the bulb in this photo.  Thinking that the 'gap' that is being made is the result of some growth down below and just kind of *making room* for even more green shoots to emerge.  As a reminder, this is a double-flowering Nymph bulb that has white flowers with some red/pink accents.  I'll keep an eye on this, but I'm hoping that by mid-December, we'll have a nice-looking plant beginning to head skywards.  Here's the bulb from 2017 on December 16th to give you a sense for what should take pla

Here comes #32 in the [ coaster collection ] here on the blog with this one from Disney's Contemporary Resort that features the neat retro-ish logo with the monorail running right through the hotel.  The most recent coaster I posted was one from Half Acre Brewery . This is also the #10 of the collection that relates to Disney.  10/32 or 31% are Disney-related with the most recent one from Enzo's Hideaway that I posted back in April of this year .  I found this in a pile of coasters that I had stashed in my office closet after cleaning it out over the Thanksgiving break.  It is now sitting on my desk along with a few others and will get used for a while before being discarded. The ten Disney-related ones include: 1. The standard one you see in your rooms @ Walt Disney World resort hotels . 2. This black and white one from the original Disneyland Resort Hotel . 3. This *new* Walt Disney World resort hotel version that updates the look of #1 above. 4. One from the

Via Can I Listen to Christmas Music? I neglected to post a link to my annual Christmas Music project earlier this season.  So, I'm getting to it now:  Can I listen to Christmas music ?  (v2).  Why V2?  Welp, that's because V1 is still up at the original URL , but I wanted to try something a little different - and more simple.  Once the season passes, I'll put in a redirect from the old site to the new one - which I think serves the most basic of purposes:  notifies you if you can or can not listen to Christmas music.  I posted about this project last year in November .  And on November 2nd of 2016 .  The old, V1 site, has lots more stuff - including a countdown clock , email subscriptions, etc.  I'll work to port those over, but for now, there's just one page and a simple answer:  Yes.    It is built on a responsive template, so it looks identical in both desktop and mobile.  Come January something, I'll flip it back over to 'no'.  The new

I spotted this 20" heated bird bath on a pedestal at Wannemaker's earlier this month and it intrigued me in terms of upgrading our current winter heated birdbath that we keep right outside of our kitchen window.  This bowl is big (20") and comes with the integrated pedestal - you can see the product listing here on Amazon (ahem....that's not an affiliate link, folks!) with all the features/details. Here's a post from November of last year showing off the installation of our existing heated birdbath .  You'll note that it sits on a little table and isn't super deep.  The lack of a pedestal is (obviously) the reason for the table and I think that the table doesn't look awesome.   And since it isn't too terribly deep along with the low humidity in the cold winter meant that I had to continue to fill this thing up every few days. The one on the pedestal looks deeper, so I'm wondering if that means less filling?  That's good. But, the

There's no picture here, mostly because a photo of an upside down goldfish is gross and, frankly, a little sad.  Lucky, our goldfish is no more. I posted about Lucky back in 2016 when The Babe won her/him at Ribfest .  She/he lived in a bowl in Equation Boy/Man's house for a while, then we moved him/her into our place in Downers Grove.  The bowl sat on our vanity upstairs since we moved in. Welp, he/she succomb'd to something earlier this month and I noticed that he/she was acting funny and after spending a few days near the bottom of the bowl, started to float a bit.  Swimbladder problem is the most likely issue ( Thx, Google !) and after a short period of time, he/she appeared one morning near the top of the bowl.  The loss hit hard on a couple of the kids.  But only for an hour or two.  Then everyone seemingly moved on.  Feels to me like an inflection point:  we can go one of two ways. 1.  Don't look back and get out of the fish business. 2.  Go big.  Ge

Last time we checked in on Lizzie was when she was wearing her third Elizabethan Collar after dealing with her rear end issue.  With the Holiday season in full swing, she's on her way to getting her 'Christmas Cut', so I thought I'd post this photo of her right before we shipped her off to the groomers.  She's wearing her winter coat.  And she's all dirty from chasing squirrels around the yard and up trees.  She hasn't caught one just yet, but she gets close.  I do wonder if the squirrels are playing her.  With the slow walk, staying just out of reach?  She'll come back from the groomer with a shorter coat (and one of those silly bandanas) and be all clean.  Probably a little bit cold for a while while it grows in, right?  But, come January, she'll have some of her fur grown back and ready to take on the winter.  Let's call this 2.25 years old .